How Can You Know You're Saved? The Plan of Salvation in Scripture

Hello and welcome to Through the Bible with Les Feldick. An Oklahoma rancher and farmer, Les Feldick has been teaching homestyle Bible classes for 20 years in Iowa, Oklahoma, and Texas. Les Feldick's unique style of Bible teaching has made the books of the Bible come to life. When Les is teaching, it's so interesting that people say time just seems to fly by. And now, here is Les Feldick. Okay, let's keep right on track. We like to use every moment that we can in the book, and so we like to welcome our television audience. It's growing every day, and I guess I really should make mention of the fact that we like to welcome our Columbus, Ohio people. We're already getting response from that station, and we hope that there will be others coming on as well. So I have to constantly remember that we have new listeners, and for their benefit I almost have to spend a few seconds on every program to make everyone aware that all of our past programs now, the last five years of broadcasting, are still available on videotape. The videos have been transcribed into little books, and we keep it just as cheap as we can. We don't make anything on them, so if you're interested you give us a call, and we'll send you the information that you need. Now a few weeks ago the question came up, I think it was here in my Tulsa class first, if I would go through the plan of salvation using the Scriptures, which I did, and at the end of that hour so many of them were so appreciative. So we came back the next week, and several asked me if I wouldn't do it again, a repeat. So we repeated it, and then I think I did the same thing in the Muscogee class, and R.L. made real good notes of it, and he came back the next week and had all those verses typed out, and Iris has made copies of them, so even for you out on television, if this 30 minutes perks your interest, and you'd like to have all these verses while you write to us, we'll send them to you. The plan of salvation. How can you know? How can you know, as we've been seeing in Romans chapter 8 now, and all the various chapters in Romans, how can you know that you are in Christ? How can you know that you have eternal life? How can you know that you don't have to worry about missing heaven? How can you know that all these things that Paul is talking about are really yours? Well it of course is always based on faith. You can do nothing in the realm of the Spirit without faith, which is taking God at His Word. And so that's why we're going to study the Word. How can we come to a place of knowing that we have eternal life? Well the best place, and the first place I always like to start, is Romans chapter 3 verse 23. And I'll try to put them on the board, so that for those of you in television at least, you can check them out in case you don't get them. Romans 3 verse 23, "...for all have come short of the glory of God." All have come short. They cannot meet God's criteria. They in no way can claim to be good enough to enter God's heaven. In fact I think it may have been the Navigators, I'm not sure, it was either Navigators or Campus Crusade, who in their little helps for students, witnessing one on one, admonished their students not to just ask someone, ìAre you a Christian?î because invariably people will say, ìYes.î But instead you ask them, ìHow or why should God let you into His heaven?î And I myself have used that now over the years. Itís the best way to start. Why should God let you into His heaven? Then youíll hear all the various reasons, and by approaching them that way you sort of put them on the soap box, and you let them express themselves. Itís amazing what I have heard, and I donít get around as much as a lot of people, of all the various reasons that people will give as to why they think God should let them into His heaven, and theyíll invariably overlook Romans 3. But see this is the very first step of faith on that road to salvation, is to recognize that in ourselves we are lost. We are like sheep without a shepherd. We are separated because of the fall of Adam, who was the federal head of the whole human race, and consequently the Scripture says it. I donít, and I would never judge anybody, but the Scripture says everyone has come short of the glory of God, which means we canít enter Godís heaven unless God does something on our behalf. The next verse I always like to use in a situation like this is Romans 6 .23, and that verse says for the wages of sin are death. Then the last half of the verse is the flip side, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now as you deal with someone, and thatís the reason weíre doing this, hopefully sometime youíll have an opportunity maybe with a child, or a grandchild, or a co-worker, or a neighbor, or whoever, and just let them see these verses in their Bible. Donít let them have to take your word for anything, let them read it. Now Romans 6.23 says for the wages of sin are death. Point out, wages are something that you work for. Wages are never a gift. Wages are what you get in return for something you have done. Now what the Scripture is pointing out then, the old Adamic nature that weíre born with has only one direction, and that is death, eternal death. And everything that that lost person does, be it good or bad, is piling up wages for his eternal doom. Thatís what the Scripture says. But the flip side, the last half of 6.23 says, ìThe gift of God is eternal life.î Now you see the difference between wages and gift? Wages you work for, thatís what you deserve, but a gift is something you do not deserve, and thatís what salvation is all about. Itís a gift. Itís not something that you can do one iota of work to earn. It has to be a gift. Now then Iíd like to have you come back to Romans chapter 1, verse 16, a well known verse, where Paul now writes in this same book of Romans, ìI am not ashamed of the Gospel, I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it, the Gospel, is the power of God.î Not church membership, not a baptism, not a work, but itís the Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation. Now remember when we were back in Romans chapter 1, I spent almost a half hour or more on that word ìsalvation.î Itís that all inclusive word that implies everything that God does on the behalf of the believer who cries out, ìIím a sinner, Iím in need of salvation, I believe that Christ died for me.î Then God does everything else. He imputes righteousness, He forgives, He cleanses, He baptizes us into the body, He does everything that needs to be done. How do we know He did it? By faith. Youíre not going to feel any of those things, youíre not going to see any of those things, but youíre going to know that He did it because the book says so. Now then, what is the Gospel? Here we have to leave Romans for a second, and we have to go back to that portion that weíve used over and over even on the program, 1 Corinthians 15, the first four verses. And here is the Gospel. Now Iíve got nothing against John 3, 16, so please donít misunderstand, but John 3, 16 by itself is not the Gospel. It is certainly a part of it once you understand the Gospel, but the Gospel that we better believe if we want eternal life, if you want to have entrance into Godís heaven, is here in 1 Corinthians 15, the first four verses. All ready to read them? ìMoreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel ,î see how plain that is, ìthe Gospel, which I preached unto you, and which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved.î Itís a Biblical word. Itís by the Gospel that you are saved, if naturally, itís conditional. You better understand, you better know what you believe, unless youíve believed in vain. Now verse 3, ìFor I delivered unto you that which I also received,î in other words, remember His experience on the road to Damascus, when the ascended, glorified Lord, not Jesus of Nazareth in His earthly ministry, but the crucified, buried, and resurrected Lord from heaven, stopped that renegade Jew, religious as he was, outside the city of Damascus, and saved him by grace, then took him out into the desert, and revealed to him this Gospel, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures. In other words, this was all pre-planned before anything was ever created, that God would create man, and man would sin and find himself in need of a Savior, of a Redeemer. And so God set everything in motion, and brought about Christ in His earthly ministry, brought about His crucifixion, and raised Him from the dead, and brought Him back into the very portals of heaven, from which now He has revealed these things that Paul calls the Secrets, or the Mysteries, and the very core of that is the Gospel, that Christ died for our sins. Now while you're out of Romans, just turn over a few pages to Ephesians chapter 1. I'm going to make this as plain as I know how to make it, and I know it works because I've seen so many that have come from various backgrounds, and from various lifestyles, and they have come to be what the Scriptures call, living epistles. They are trophies of God's grace, not anything that Les Feldick did, but only that they saw what the Book of Ephesians chapter 1 says. Ephesians 1, starting with verse 12. Ephesians 1, that we should be to the praise of His glory, we who first trusted, or believed, or placed our faith in Christ, in whom you also trusted. Now do you see how evident it is what I'm always saying? Paul writes to the believer. He isn't writing to a lost person here. He's writing to you and I as believers, and he says, "...in whom you also believed, after..." Now watch this. I've had more than one couple from various denominations, after I read this verse, just literally have their eyes bugged open. They say, we never saw this before. This isn't what we've been taught, but here it is. After you heard the Word of Truth, and what's the Word of Truth? The Gospel. See that Christ died, was buried, and rose from the dead. So after you've heard the Gospel, and you've been able to consider it, and you're old enough to understand that not only are you a sinner, but now you can understand that Christ is the remedy. Paul says, "...in whom also after that you believed." Now you see all the things that it doesn't say? It doesn't say anything about church membership. Now I'm not against the local church. I'm just stressing what salvation is, and all these other things follow. But when it comes to salvation, you can't put church membership because it's not in here. You can't put in a baptism. I don't care whether you sprinkle, or pour, or immerse, or whatever else. It's not in here. And after that you believed, then what did God do? He sealed you. He branded you. Now I'm still a cowman. I've been working cattle every day lately, and I'm still a cowman. One of the very marks of ranching is the brand, and it demarks ownership. Now that's exactly what the indwelling Holy Spirit is for God. It is His mark of ownership, and we're sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest, or the down payment of our inheritance. Now let's come back into the book of Romans, and let's look at chapter 5 and verse 8. These verses are just loaded if people will just examine them. Romans 5, verse 8, and I'll give you time to find it. But God, the Almighty Creator, Triune God, commended, extended His love toward us. See, everything is based on His love. This is the reason that came up in one of my classes just the other night, and it's always a valid question. Why did God create mankind if He knew, and He did, that man would become such a disappointment, when He would just become such a rebel, and create such a catastrophe on the planet? Why did God ever create man in the first place? To have someone He could love, and a creature who could respond to that love. Now that's the whole idea of the marriage relationship. That's why Paul says in Ephesians, "...husbands, love your wives, extend that love to the female of the species, and God hath put within her a responder, and she will respond to that love." Now that's what God does in the big picture, to the whole human race. He extends His love. That was the whole idea of the cross, that He loved us, and gave Himself for us. And then He has every right in the world, and heaven, to expect that love to be responded to. Now you see, people will sometimes say, how can a God of love and mercy send people to an eternal hell? Well that's what God does. Why? Because He's already loved them to the very extent that heaven could offer, and He gave it to every human being who has ever lived. And when a human being spurns that love, then God in His sovereignty has every right in the world to reject them at the Great White Throne. And that's why I stand here and teach that this Book was given to the human race for basically the sole purpose of helping people to escape this wrath of a righteous God. So He has commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet or still sinners. God doesn't expect people to straighten up and clean up their life, and then approach Him for salvation. I've had people tell me, and Iris has had people tell me, if I can just do this, and if I can just clean up my life, and get rid of this habit, then I'll get saved. That's not the way God works. God saves everybody just exactly where we are, and then He does the work of regeneration. We don't, but He does it, and that's what He wants. He wants all the credit, and He wants all the glory. So He commended His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Let's go to chapter 5, and drop over to verse 20. I think this is a verse that probably isn't even in the list that R.L. put up, but it's a good one. Romans 5, verse 20, "...the law entered in 1500 years B.C., with Moses coming down off the mountain, and he introduced the law to the nation of Israel." So the Law entered, that is the human experience, that the offense that man's sin might abound. Now it doesn't mean that it's going to make it worse, but that it might be seen for what it really is. Because until the written Law appeared, man could only go by conscience. But when the written Law came, there was no doubt that everything man was doing, even after searing his conscience, was breaking God's Law, and it became sin. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Every one of us know of somebody that we think is so ungodly, they are so hateful towards God, they live the life of a reprobate, and most people don't even like to associate with them, but God still loves them. And God is able to reach below the vilest sinner, and lift him up, and make him a saint. So where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And that's why Paul refers to his Gospel as the Gospel of the Grace of God. Now in the closing minutes, let's go over to Romans chapter 10. Let's come down through verses 9-13. I always like to end up, if I lead someone to the Lord as we call it, with verse 13. But let's start up here in Romans 10 at verse 9. Romans 10 says, Romans 10 says, "...that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth..." In other words, God expects you to communicate this, not only to Himself, but to others. God is a communicator, and He expects us to verbalize some of these things. I'm afraid too many people have just gone through, and they've had a mental ascent, and they say, "...well yeah, I believe in God." That's not what God is looking for. God is looking for a verbalization of all of these various steps. You tell God that you recognize from Scripture that you're a sinner. Tell Him out loud, "...Lord, I'm a sinner. I'm a child of Adam, and I have no reason to expect you to take me into your heaven." Because that's what your Book tells me. Verbalize it, and say it out loud, in the same way when we call on Him for salvation. Don't just assume that God reads your heart, although He certainly can. But He wants us to actually audibly say it out loud, and say, "...Lord, I want you to save me. I believe that what you've done, you've done on my behalf." Verse 9. "...and that thou shalt confess with thy mouth verbally the Lord Jesus." Now here we have to go beyond the Jesus of His earthly ministry, because He hadn't died then yet. But as soon as He finished the work of the cross, and the power of the resurrection, He now becomes Lord, and I can't emphasize that enough. He becomes Lord of our life. And He becomes not just Jesus, but He becomes Jesus Christ the Lord, or the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think it is only proper to approach Him on those terms. So if you will confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and thou shalt believe, and believe is not something that you do with your hands or your feet. Believing is an attitude of the heart. And so if you will believe in thy heart that God hath raised Him from the dead. Now I know it's not all in here, but He couldn't have raised Him from the dead unless He what? Unless He died. So that's implied. So if you believe that Christ died, was buried, and rose again from the dead, what's the promise? What's the promise? Thou shalt be saved. That's a promise. God said it. Oh I know the Apostle Paul wrote it, but God said it, and this is where He wants us to come. Now we say, alright, God you've said it. I believe it with all my heart. Then what does God become? Duty bound. He is duty bound to fulfill His Word, otherwise this Book is a lie. But He is, He's duty bound, and He will fulfill what He said He would do. Now verse 10. For with the heart, now here's where I think I don't want to scare people, but here's where we all have to self examine once in a while. Am I just believing a head knowledge, or am I believing with all my innermost being that Christ died for the world, for me? So with the heart, man believe it unto righteousness. That's an imputed thing, and as soon as we believe the Gospel, God imputes His righteousness. Remember when we were back in chapter 3 in our early study in Romans? Just like when He killed the animals for Adam and Eve, and He clothed them, and I pointed out that wasn't the covering of their nakedness. That was covered when it says He gave them coats of skins. But the last part of that verse in Genesis, and He clothed them, with what? Righteousness, righteousness. And then remember I took you to Isaiah chapter 61, and Isaiah said the same thing. Thou hath clothed me with the garments of righteousness. And then remember I took you into Romans chapter 3, where Paul says the same thing happens unto all that believe. Now he's saying the same thing here, that with the heart, man believes unto righteousness. That God can actually clothe him with the righteousness of Christ. And then with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. Now it isn't that you have to tell somebody before you can be saved. But whenever you've experienced something good, and I always of course, when I was a kid I loved cars, and I still do I guess. But I know when we were in high school, what was our favorite bragging right? Well our car. Boy if you had someone that could go from 0 to 60 or something like that a little bit faster than the next guy, that was bragging rights. And it should be the same way with our salvation. I mean we should be ready to talk about it at the drop of a hat. Just as easily as we talk about the weather, we should be able to talk about the spiritual things that God has done on my behalf. See I know I'm going to heaven when I die, and that's not a braggadocio statement because I'm deserving it. I'm going to heaven because I know that Christ did everything on my behalf. I've done nothing. I am no deserving, none whatsoever. You don't believe me? Ask my wife. None of us are deserving of God's heaven, but we know we're going there because of God's promises. Now I've got one minute left, and I've got to quickly take us down to verse 13. And here is the culmination of this whole act of becoming a believer. You now recognize that Christ died for our sin, we recognize that we're hopeless in ourselves, and now we call upon Him. Verse 13. "...for whosoever shall call upon the name of the LORD, and again shall be saved." That's a promise. You know I've used it before, and I'll use it again. You take a swimming pool on a hot summer day, and all those kids yelling and screaming, it's the kid that's in trouble, in spite of all the other racket that the lifeguard hears. Now I think God is the same way. Oh, His ear is tuned to the very second that a sinner cries out and says, God, I'm a sinner, but I believe that you died for me. Thank you, and be sure to tune in next time for Through the Bible with Les Feldick.